Plastic bags may power your car in the future

The Cranfield University is carrying out research to understand the potential recovery of valuable chemicals from plastic-containing waste which is not currently recycled.

This would divert low-grade plastic waste from landfill to produce chemicals for use in manufacturing or as liquid fuels.

Currently due to the under capacity of suitable refuse plants in the UK, over three million tonnes per annum of potential refuse-derived fuels (RDF) are exported.

The University’s research will support producing high value materials from wastes otherwise destined for landfill or as use as direct energy conversion, that is, power from incineration.

Collaborating with Syngas Products and WestAfricaENRG, the research team will demonstrate that RDF and wastes containing low-grade plastic materials, which are currently rejected by material recycling facilities (MRF), can be used in a town-scale pyrolysis plant.

Developed by Syngas Products, the plants produce energy, alongside affordable and high-quality liquid fuels, for use as base chemicals in manufacturing.

By adding additional processing to the existing Syngas Products technology for waste processing, this ‘upcycling’ approach could be a commercially viable option to solve both the low-grade plastic waste issues and dependency on fossil fuels for transport.

If rolled-out across Nigeria, the outputs of the waste pyrolysis would provide a 'greener' fuel for the generators, security of power supplies and reduce the reliance on pure fossil-fuels and stimulate the development of more MRFs in Nigeria.

It is hoped the knowledge gained from this research could reduce transportation emissions by siting technology locally at a small modular scale, where the waste arises or where there is a need for fuel.

“RDF material is energy-rich and represents a loss-of-resource once it leaves the UK,” said Dr Stuart Wagland, Senior Lecturer in Energy and Environmental Chemistry at Cranfield.

“Similarly, substantial quantities, around 340,000 tpa, of rejected and mixed low-grade plastics from UK MRFs are produced each year, as the market for recovering and recycling this material is not commercially viable. Our research to date shows that through smaller-scale advanced thermal treatment, pyrolysis in this case, products can be recovered in addition to the energy and power.”